The Runaway Bride
by saralikeprada
Summary: Will a high-society runaway bride find true love in a blue-collar Cowgirl? Arizona Robbins should never have gotten involved with ice princess Callie Torres. But from the moment they met, there was no stopping the wildfire of passion between them. Their affair burned down Callie's sham of an engagement (which was good) but also Arizona's heart (that part, not so good).
1. Chapter 1

Watertown, Nashville

She was the most hated woman in town.

Okay, maybe she was projecting. But she didn't think so. Even when she had won Miss Coastal Watertown 2016 she hadn't been on the receiving end of this much shade.

Of course, abandoning the golden boy of Watertown at the altar made her little more than a regrettable footnote in the history of what had become one of the town's most epic love stories and has also made her the focus of anger from more than just teenage beauty queens.

Yeah. Everyone hated Calliope Torres. She even hated herself a little bit.

But that was nothing new.

Right now, even Arizona hated her. And that actually stung. Though she shouldn't be thinking about Arizona.

She never should have thought of her in the first place. Thought of her, looked at her, talked to her.

Arizona Robbins had been the cause of her downfall. And she had been about as unexpected as anything else.

If Callie had known Arizona would be gorgeous, addictive and the antithesis of any man or woman she had ever dealt with before in her life, she never would have spoken to her that night she went to Joe's. She should never have gone to Joe's in the first place.

Another "should have."

Should have. Would have. Could have.

Of course, all of this cancelled wedding drama could have been avoided if Mark had been a reasonable human being and broken up with her when her behaviour had become untenable.

She had been certain that when she insisted she move out of his bedroom and that they be celibate for the eight months before their wedding, he would call her a crazy woman and throw her out. But he hadn't.

No, not Mark Sloan. Who had been absolutely determined to do everything he was expected to do. No amount of bridezilla nonsense and withholding of her body had made him change course.

Callie sighed heavily and held on to her bag more tightly as she walked to Watertown's main street from the alley behind The Grind. It was a cold, drizzly February day, the fog hovering low over the steel-gray sea. The weather matched her mood.

So when the raindrops landed on her head and rolled down her forehead, Callie took it as acknowledgment from the universe that everything sucked.

She ducked into The Grind, the warmth from the little coffee shop seeping through her damp coat, making goose bumps rise on her skin. She got in line behind an older gentleman she didn't know and wrapped her arms around herself, doing her best not to look around. She was not in the mood to see anyone.

She supposed that she should be over the whole wedding thing. It had happened four months ago, after all. And in that time the man she had left at the altar had married her bridesmaid. And that very same bridesmaid had won the mayoral election and deposed Callie's father, who had been mayor of Watertown for more than twenty years.

Life had changed. The world had moved on. Well, except for the people who liked staring at her and whispering behind their hands as they told and retold the epic love story of Mark Sloan and Lexie Grey, who were decidedly better off without the sinister Callie Torres in their lives.

She couldn't even argue with that.

But as she stood there doing her best to ignore anyone who might be looking at her, it was not Mark she thought of. And it was not the day of the wedding that was on her mind.

No, the day that sprang to mind had happened six months ago in Joes bar.

She had been feeling restless, edgy after a fitting for her bridal gown. The one that she didn't want to wear, to the wedding she didn't want to have. She had been a few months deep into her "get Mark to break it off" plan, and nothing seemed to be working.

So she had done something very uncharacteristic and decided to go to the bar by herself.

She knew she had looked out of place. With her raven locks swept up in a fancy bun and her makeup done just so—she'd wanted an idea of what the full look would be like on her wedding day.

But she had gone into the bar anyway. And that was when Callie had seen her.

Blonde hair tucked under a Black cowboy hat, tight black T-shirt, battered jeans. She was talking to a group of guys, a glass of amber alcohol in her hand. And what a hand it was. Feminine, delicate and yet rough-looking. And then there were her arms. Muscular, covered in just the right amount of tattoos.

Callie had suddenly been in the middle of a strange fantasy.

She liked men. Suitable men. Growing up in Watertown, it's what the protocol was, to like men. But every now and then Callie always found herself attracted to women. In truth—or rather, in women exactly like the one standing in front of her.

Decent. Good. Clean-cut.

Mark was good-looking, no question. But their particular chemistry was…manageable. In fact, at the time when she had gone to the bar, she and Mark hadn't actually had sex with each other in months, in spite of the fact that they were supposed to be getting married. In spite of the fact that they lived together. And yet it wasn't even a struggle to stay celibate. Not for her, and clearly not for him, since he had never once pressured her for sex since she had told him she wanted to take a physical hiatus until the wedding.

Weird, because standing there, looking at that stranger, Callie had felt that if she didn't have her hands on this gorgeous woman's body she might die.

Callie had turned away from her. Because it had been the smart thing to do. The only thing to do.

But then the stranger had walked over to her. A beer in her hand, a cocky smile curving her mouth upward. And then she had spoken to her. That voice.

"What are you doing here, sweetheart?"

It took Callie a full two seconds to realize that voice was no longer contained to a memory. She turned around, and her heart plummeted into her stomach.

Because there she was. In the coffee shop. Interrupting a memory she wished she didn't have.

Arizona Robbins. Her very own stumbling block.

The bad girl of Watertown who had caused the very definite downfall of this particular good girl.

And there was no mistaking the glitter in her sea blue eyes right now. So very different from what had been there when they first met.

Callie Torres was the most hated woman in town. But nobody hated her more than Arizona Robbins did.


	2. Chapter 2

_Watertown, Nashville_

Arizona Robbins had pretty successfully avoided Callie Torres for the past couple of months.

Hell, even in a town this size, it wasn't shocking how easy it was to avoid her. Because they had spent a lot of years never crossing paths. Until that night six months ago. That night when Watertown's resident princess had lowered herself to enter a dive country bar without her usual posse surrounding her.

The mayor's daughter. Well, the former mayor, as it was.

Arizona had taken one look at her from across Joe's and felt a lightning bolt shoot down her spine. She couldn't remember feeling a connection with a woman that was quite that electric in…ever.

And it was weird, because Callie her type. No. Definitely not the type for some gay, backwoods, roughneck logger who moonlighted as a cowgirl when she could get ranching jobs to fill the weekends.

Even before she had realized she was looking at the mayor's daughter in the flesh, she had recognized that she was the kind of woman who was off-limits. Soft. Refined. Her handbag probably cost more than Arizona's monthly salary.

Though money was the least of it. Class. That was the big thing.

Arizona was the daughter of an alcoholic heavy machinery mechanic from the most run-down part of town. And while Arizona had certainly done better for herself since leaving home, she did not move in spheres with women like her. And they didn't come to her bed either.

At least, they hadn't.

She should have known better. Because that was what had happened. Involvement. What had started as a one-night stand had gotten tangled up into something else.

Like being wrapped in barbed wire. Hurt like hell. Couldn't get out.

And Arizona had known Callie was marrying a man. There was no guarantee that the electric waves she had been sending from across the bar will last a lifetime. She could very well end up being an experiment.

It had been a low thing to do. Sleeping with Callie in the first place. But there had been no logic, no honor and no thinking with the brain above her belt from the moment Arizona had met Callie.

Apparently, that theme was continuing, because speaking to her now wasn't any smarter than speaking to her the first time had been.

"I'm getting coffee," Callie said, her voice brittle, like glass. So easily broken. Like the rest of her.

Arizona took a step closer, appraising the elegant line of her profile. That sweet little ski slope nose, the long, delicate neck. The pale shell-red color of the gently curved lips.

Yeah, Callie Torres was fine dining all the way.

And Arizona was fucking fast food.

"You don't usually come here. Or at least not this early."

"Am I only allowed to go to one corner of the town now, Arizona? Or is it just that you object to me going out without the big scarlet A on my chest?"

"Hey, sweetheart, if you get that A, so do I. Equality and shit."

Callie angled her head away from Arizona, those lips now pressed into a firm, thin line. "Ever the charmer, Arizona."

Arizona recognized this version of Callie. The one who got increasingly cold and snappish when she didn't want to be pressed. When she wanted to be left alone. She seemed to think her ice princess routine was scary. That it might make a person afraid that she would go all Elsa on her and turn her being into an icicle.

Sadly for Callie, Arizona didn't scare that easy. Sadly for Arizona, it was mostly because she was a dumb ass who still wanted Callie in spite of everything.

"You think I'm charming,"she said, reaching out and grabbing hold of Callie's chin forcing her to look at her. "At least, you did."

Something flashed in those brown eyes, just for a moment. Just enough. "No. I wanted to sleep with you. And now I just want coffee."

"I think you want a little more than that."

"And I think your ego is as overblown as it's always been. Now, I'm going to get my latte and…"

"Get back to Daddy's house?"

Callie frowned, a crease marring her otherwise perfect face. "Do you honestly think my dad is letting me live at home? He lost the election, Arizona. There's no one left to show off for. Also, considering I torpedoed my wedding and my fiancé ended up marrying the woman who was running against my dad—a woman who is now the mayor—he does not have very warm and fuzzy feelings attached to me at the moment. Or probably ever again."

"He threw you out?"

"Well. Mark threw me out. And then my dad took me in. And then he threw me out. Honestly, Mark was justified. Mark should have thrown me out almost a year ago when I insisted we live as roommates and not as a couple."

Arizona shook her head, crossing her arms over her heaving chest. "Unbelievable. You need everybody to make your decisions for you? He needed to break up with you. Then you wanted me to tell you not to marry him. Well, I did. Where did it get me?"

"I didn't marry him," Callie said, her voice hushed.

"Right. Then you rejected me, too." Arizona spit out.

At that point, they were at the front of the line. The girl working the register took Callie's latte order, and Arizona pulled her wallet out quickly, then took out a five and handed it to the girl. "Keep the change," she said.

"Don't buy my coffee," Callie said. "You can't…"

"You think I can't afford a damned latte? I might not have disposable income for…" She waved her hand toward her purse. "A bag made out of a cow's ass with some logo stamped on it, but I can buy you a coffee. Anyway, of the two of us, who's in a precarious living situation?"

"I'm not in a precarious living situation," Callie said, her cheeks turning pink. "I'm actually staying in the apartment above The Grind."

That surprised Arizona. Mostly because she knew that Lauren, the owner of the coffee shop, also owned that apartment, and she didn't think she and Callie were friends. In fact, Arizona had been under the impression that Callie didn't have many, if any, female friends.

Well, she had been friends with Lexie Grey at one point. But between Lexie taking Callie's dad's job and marrying Callie's abandoned groom, Arizona figured that friendship had seen better days.

The coffee shop girl reached out, holding a cup between Callie and herself. Callie just looked at it like it was a rabid varmint. So Arizona took it.

"Now you're taking my coffee?"

"I paid for it," Arizona said. "But no. That would be too satisfying. That's what you want. You want me to take your coffee, and then you can be a hapless victim of your circumstances yet again."

"Stop it, Arizona," Callie said, snatching the cup out of her hand, then giving her chest a firm shove. "You think you know me. You think you know my life. You've been nothing but dismissive of me, and anything you see is as my rich girl problems, from the moment we met. You were just a convenient lay. Until you weren't. Now you are a decidedly inconvenient lay, Arizona Robbins, and I don't want to deal with you anymore."

Arizona didn't know what shocked her more, the fact that Callie had shoved her, or the fact that she had dared to show real emotion.

Callie turned away from Arizona and started to storm out of the coffee shop, totally uncaring about the attention they were drawing, which was also completely unlike her. Arizona reached out and wrapped her fingers around her wrist. But that was a mistake.

The minute her skin touched Callie's, the fire in her ignited. And Arizona knew that no matter how much she wanted to tell herself otherwise, this thing with Callie was far from over.

* * *

 **AN - Everyone is welcome to read my story and judge for themselves if it is a stolen piece or not. Just because the title is same as some other fic doesn't mean the story is stolen. Please don't go on blaming someone of palagrism without concrete evidence. What's next? Will I have the author of Country Girl series coming at me for making Arizona a cowgirl in my story?**

 **AN - Let me know what you guys think. Is there a way Callie can get herself out of the mess she has created? Coming out in an red dirt town can never be easy.**


	3. Chapter 3

**_AN - Re-upload with minor tweaks. As a anon suggested it's a bit confusing with 'she' and 'her'._**

 ** _AN - Italics - flashback - Callie's POV_**

* * *

 _The minute her skin touched Callie's, the fire in her ignited. And Arizona knew that no matter how much she wanted to tell herself otherwise, this thing with Callie was far from over._

* * *

 **I** t was happening again. The flash fire of attraction she had never felt before Arizona, and certainly hadn't felt since.

Those strong, rough fingers curled around Callie's arm and suddenly she was lost in a world of sensation she wished she could escape. And also, kind of wished she could disappear into again.

The coffee shop existed somewhere in the background. But it was fading. And she was being dragged back into the past…

* * *

 _"What are you doing here, sweetheart?"_

 _Arizona was talking to her. That woman Callie had noticed when she had first come in. And for some reason, Arizona had her left hand behind her back._

 _"Just getting a drink."_

 _"I happen to have a drink right here." Arizona extended the bottle of beer towards Callie. It was unopened._

 _"You're not supposed to take drinks from strange women."_

 _"I'm not?" Arizona asked, a smile curving her lips upward. Showing some killer dimples that made Callie feel weak at her knees._

 _"No. The general female you," Callie said. "Meaning me."_

 _"Well, as you can see, the bottle is closed. And I have absolutely no ulterior motives."_

 _"You're just buying me a drink to be nice?" Callie asked sceptically..._

 _"No," Arizona said. "I'm buying you a drink in hopes that you'll sleep with me. But no ulterior motives other than that."_

 _Callie wanted to laugh, and she didn't understand why. She should be appalled._

 _She was decidedly unappalled._

 _"I'm not making any promises," Callie said, taking the bottle from Arizona's hand, her fingertips brushing against Arizona's.._

 _The moment her skin made contact with Arizona's, Callie felt an arrow of need shoot between her thighs. It wasn't like anything Callie had ever felt before, so she couldn't blame it on the past few months of celibacy. Couldn't blame it on anything, really. She was not the kind of girl who went out to bars and hooked up. Not before Mark, and certainly not since._

 _In fact, there had only been the one serious boyfriend in college, and then after that Mark. And in both cases the attraction had been about their suitability, not about their bodies._

 _The college boyfriend had lived too far away to be someone she could think about marrying. Her father had said that. And when Carlos Torres spoke, people listened. Then he had introduced her to Mark Sloan, and he had made it very clear how he wanted that to go._

 _She liked Mark. She liked him a lot. And he was attractive. More than attractive, he was gorgeous._

 _But it wasn't this deep, raw electricity that seemed to overtake her completely._

 _She didn't like this at all._

 _And still, Callie took the beer from her._

 _Arizona ended up abandoning her friends, sitting at a table and talking to Callie. But the more they talked, the tighter that feeling in her stomach became. The edgier, more restless she felt. She felt like it was written all over her face. What she had never done in her entire life. Callie was fantasizing about stripping Arizona's clothes off. Callie had never felt like she might genuinely not be able to control herself. Like she might actually fling herself into Arizona's arms if they sat there any longer. Demand that Arizona do something to take the edge off the tension building in her._

 _She wouldn't though. Callie wasn't going to do anything with Arizona. She told herself that over and over again._

 _"Can I walk you to your car?" Arizona asked Callie that at the end of the evening, as though she wasn't expecting anything. Callie couldn't tell if she was relieved or disappointed._

 _"Sure," Callie said._

 _They made their way out of the bar and into the parking lot, which was empty. That was irritating, because it would've been nice to have some witnesses out there. Some eyes to keep her accountable._

 _But no. There was no one._

 _"This is me," Callie said, gesturing to the little red sports car her father had bought for her a few months earlier._

 _"That's a shame," Arizona said._

 _"Why?"_

 _"Well, because if you had a jacked-up truck out here I figured I could push you against the side of it and kiss you good and hard. This is a little bit too low."_

 _Callie's heart was thundering in her head, her hands shaking. Her hands. She lifted her left hand, her diamond ring sparkling in the pale blue security light. "I'm engaged," she said, her voice as unsteady as her hands._

 _Arizona drew back for a moment. "Engaged."_

 _"Yes."_

 _Suddenly, the situation felt unbearable. And the ring felt so, so heavy. But Callie had to get married. She did. Unless Mark wanted out. There was no way she could make the decision. She owed her father. She couldn't defy him in this._

 _But right now, she wanted to forget about Mark and climb the invisible wall that stood between her and this woman._

 _"Not married," the said woman pressed._

 _"No."_

 _"Say stop if you want me to stop," Arizona said._

 _It took Callie a moment to register why Arizona said that. And by the time Callie did, her lips were touching Callie's. And the moment those lips touched hers, telling her to stop was the absolute last thing Callie wanted._

 _She had never, ever experienced a kiss like this._

 _Arizona's mouth was firm, expert, her tongue a sensual temptation Callie couldn't resist. And she had definitely never felt that way before. Usually, she was uncomfortable with this kind of thing. It took her time, candles and seduction to get in the mood. And even then her brain was busy with a thousand other things._

 _Not now. Callie's mind was on one thing._

 _Well, maybe more than one thing, technically. Since it was on the kiss and on what she hoped would come next._

 _Arizona wrapped her arms around Callie, enveloped her completely. She was just so edgy, and Callie wanted to throw herself against all that rough softness. Maybe she would break. Finally. Fly into the million little pieces she had been trying to hold together for the past ten years._

 _But then, Callie supposed she would be free._

 _When they parted, Callie was breathing hard, and she wanted nothing more than to have her grab hold of Arizona again. Have her kiss her again._

 _But she didn't. Instead, she just stood there, watching her, waiting._

 _She didn't like that. Callie didn't want to be the one to make the decision. She didn't want to be the one to blow up her life. She couldn't._

 _Arizona seemed to sense her uncertainty. Because she leaned in again, and this time when her lips touched Callie's, the kiss was gentle. An exploration. One that left Callie completely and utterly conquered._

 _"You want to go home with me," Arizona said. "Don't you?"_

 _Callie reached out, pressed her fingertips to the strong column of her throat, felt her pulse raging beneath her touch. She took a shaking breath, and then she said the word that scared her more than almost anything. "Yes."_

 _She said it because the only word that scared her more was no._


	4. Chapter 4

Arizona shook off her memories of that night four months ago, and rooted herself in the present. She should stop touching Callie.

Now.

Arizona knew it.

She shouldn't allow the memories of their first night to play over and over again in her mind. And she sure as hell shouldn't keep on holding Callie's arm, sliding her thumb over Callie's pulse. Just to make sure Callie was as turned on as she was. As affected by this as she was.

But Arizona kept on touching her anyway.

That was the story of their entire ill-fated affair.

After that first night, she shouldn't have gone to the bar on Friday nights at ten, knowing she would find Callie there, hanging out against the wall nursing a beer, her large, luminous eyes scanning the crowd for her. She shouldn't have texted Callie to find out if she was free for a couple of hours. Shouldn't keep Callie's number in her phone at all.

When Callie had shown at her door looking guilty and scared and turned on all at the same time, at eleven at fucking night, she shouldn't have let her in.

Yeah, that was the constant refrain in Arizona's brain over those months she was involved with Callie. But it always came down to one thing.

She should. But she didn't want to.

Bottom line, Arizona wanted Callie a hell of a lot more than she wanted to be right. And the same was true now.

Of course right now the entire town—at least all who patronized the coffee house were staring at them. And they were probably confirming a few things that the citizens of Watertown already suspected.

Well. They might have suspected that another man was involved in Callie's decision to back out of her wedding to Mark Sloan, but nobody would have ever guessed it was woman, Watertown's infamous sinner Arizona Robbins. Arizona Robbins was beneath Callie. About as far beneath her as it was possible to get. And somehow Callie had spent two months beneath her as well.

Arizona had given up trying to work it out. Really, the fact that Callie would had sex with her at all was the most surprising thing about their association. That their association was more about their connection on much deeper level then Callie identifying her suppressed sexuality. But the fact that once the road had been cleared and Callie had actually been able to be with Arizona-once Callie's engagement had ended and there had been no obstacle in their way— Callie had decided to leave Arizona, that was the least surprising.

"Why don't we… Why don't we go talk?" Callie asked.

She didn't want to talk. Arizona could tell by the way Callie's pupils had expanded. The way her breath had quickened. Of course, Callie was probably married to the fiction that they would talk if they went somewhere private. Arizona understood that. Because their entire association had been built on fictions like that.

That Callie was just going to the bar for a drink, not to look for Arizona. That she was just going for a drive, and not heading to Arizona's place.

Because one thing Callie Torres could not do where Arizona was concerned was admit to herself that she just wanted Arizona.

"Sure," Arizona said, releasing her hold on Callie. "We can talk."

Callie looked around. "Not here."

Arizona looked toward the door at the back of the coffeehouse that she suspected led upstairs to her apartment. "After you."

"Not through that door," Callie said, blazing a trail out of The Grind and to the main street.

"Well, I can't be seen going up to your place," Arizona said, her tone dry.

"What would the point be?"

Callie looked…genuinely confused by the thought that Arizona might not care if anyone saw them together. If anyone suspected what was between them. "Does there have to be a point?"

"There's a point to everything," she said, turning and walking toward the side of the row of buildings, to a narrow alleyway.

"Not everything," Arizona said. "Some things are just about doing them."

Callie stopped and treated Arizona to a sharp glance. "Not for me."

"I seem to recall you did something just for the sake of it. Because it was me."

"Well. That wasn't the plan."

"Right," Arizona said, following her around to the back of the building and inside, then up a narrow staircase. "The great Calliope Torres plan. Marry the prince, live happily ever after."

"If you ask me how that's going, I'm going to knee you in the pussy"

Callie leaned on her front door and unlocked it, and they stepped into an apartment that was nicer than the ranch house Arizona lived in. Big, open space, exposed brick. Definitely a downgrade from the near mansion Callie had grown up in and the place she'd been living in with the man she had almost married.

"That was a pretty unsophisticated threat," Arizona commented.

The corner of Callie's mouth turned down, then she lifted her hand and extended her little finger. "Should one lift their pinkie when they threaten to knee a woman in?"

Arizona laughed in spite of herself, in spite of this whole ridiculous situation. "Couldn't hurt. Would definitely be the fanciest pussy injury I ever received."

But then, Callie was about the fanciest thing to ever touch her body, so she supposed it was fitting.

"We shouldn't be here together," Callie said, clasping her hands in front of her and picking at one perfectly manicured nail.

Which made Arizona remember what it felt like to have those fingernails scraping down her bare back.

The way Callie had sounded when she hit her peak. Always holding back her sounds of pleasure. Always so uncomfortable with the loss of control. The first time they were together, Callie had been… Well, she had been upset that she'd had an orgasm.

After a little bit of digging, Arizona had discovered it had been her first one. Which had led to a discussion that was pretty damned frank in nature. The kind where she had confessed to never having one with anyone else. But then, it was because she considered Arizona nothing more than a diversion that she could have it with her. Arizona wasn't a part of her real life. And Callie had never treated her like she was.

"But," Arizona said, almost in rebellion to her thoughts, "here we are. Just like always."

And it was how it always would be, unless one of them left town. There just weren't enough streets, or enough people cluttering them up. It was inevitable that they would run into each other somewhere.

In part because Arizona kept trying to run into Callie, no matter what she told herself. Patronizing The Grind had never been anything more than an attempt to run into her. Because it seemed like the kind of place she might go.

Arizona was angry at Callie. Rightfully so, in her estimation. But that didn't mean she had forgotten her. It didn't mean Arizona had stopped wanting her.

"No," Callie said, shaking her head. "It's not going to be just like always. We should talk. We should try to…fix this."

"There's no fixing it. Because there's nothing to fix."

"That's not true. At least it wasn't true for me. Arizona...I told you things that I never told anyone else. I did things with you that I've certainly never done with anyone else."

A pang slugged Arizona's gut. "So, you want to give me some hush money so I won't tell anyone?"

"No," Callie said, her voice like acid. "I just wanted…"

"Sweetheart, I know you're not about to suggest that we should be friends. Because let me tell you something, we can't be friends." And with that Arizona took a step toward her, wrapping her arm around Callie's waist and drawing her against her body.

Finally. Finally Callie was in her arms. "Because no matter what, no matter our intentions, there will always be this."

And then, even though it was a terrible idea, Arizona bent down and kissed her mouth.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN - The delay is entirely on me. Kindly read the previous chapter first to get a hold again of this story.**

* * *

There is a rational thing to do in this situation. Callie was sure. She was equally certain that the right thing was not to wrap her arms around Arizona's neck and kiss her like she was a drowning woman and Arizona was her last source of air. But that was the only thing she could think to do.

Or maybe think was an overstatement.

Callie was just feeling. It was all she could ever do when Arizona touched her. From the very first.

She had lived a life of careful control, and Callie had been quite happy to continue that way with the two men in her life who had come before Arizona. Even Mark, beautiful Mark - hadn't stirred this kind of feeling in her. Callie hadn't wanted him to. That was the thing.

They had been so…content. With their careful, quiet relationship. With touching each other and not burning.

Arizona had burned her from the very moment their skin had first made contact.

Before Arizona, Callie had always found sex to be pleasant, if sometimes a little bit sweaty and messier than she would like.

She had never really given much thought to whether or not she climaxed. She just didn't care. She had happily considered herself someone who wasn't very sexual.

She had nearly cried after her first time with Arizona. Because what was wrong with her if she went willingly into a stranger's arms, only to find herself rocked by the kind of climax she had only ever read about in fiction, the kind she didn't think existed?

She had never had an orgasm during sex until Arizona. And it had just…happened. Like everything else with them.

It was a strange and cruel joke that Arizona seemed to be suited to Callie physically in ways that defied logic while she made absolutely no sense in every other way.

Nothing made sense now. At least, nothing beyond running her fingertips over Arizona's soft, dimple-less cheek and angling her head so Callie could take the kiss deeper. Kiss Arizona boldly, which she would never have dreamed of doing with anyone else. Would never have dreamed of being the one to initiate sliding her tongue against her partner's. To hold her face hard against hers and make sure the kiss went on and on until neither of them could breathe.

Callie's head was spinning, her heart beating so hard it was a miracle it didn't drill a hole straight through her chest.

Four months. It had been four months since she had touched Arizona Robbins. And all of a sudden, that was an eternity.

And it seemed unfathomable that Callie had imagined she would go the rest of her life without having Arizona again. Right now, Callie felt like she would die if she couldn't get Arizona naked in the next few minutes. If she couldn't feel Arizona's skin against hers.

Callie realized that a tear had slid down her cheek, and she lifted her hand to wipe it away. She didn't want Arizona to know that she felt like she was breaking apart. Arizona had already stolen all the control she had once possessed over her body. Callie didn't want to give Arizona her emotions, too.

Arizona pulled her T-shirt up over her head, exposing that gorgeous, muscular body and all those tattoos. Callie loved those tattoos. Before she met Arizona, Callie would have said she absolutely did not like tattoos. That tattoos on a good-looking man were like bumper stickers on a Mercedes. Tacky.

Now Callie wanted to lick them.

And hey, they were in her apartment, and Callie was having Arizona, at least this one last time. So she was going to lick them.

Callie leaned in, tracing the outline of the Eagle just below Arizona's round breasts, with the tip of her tongue, gratified when Arizona shuddered as Callie moved her attention higher to her nipple.

Then Arizona growled, a feral, untamed sound Callie once would have said appealed to her even less than tattoos. But she liked it when Arizona growled.

Arizona turned everything inside out and upside down. Made raw, mysterious things seem perfectly sensible all of a sudden. Callie had never understood why people lost their heads over sex.

And then she met Arizona.

And losing her head had not only made sense, it had seemed perfectly logical. Like there was no other choice but to touch Arizona. To be with Arizona. To lose her scruples, her everything.

Arizona stripped Callie's clothes from her body, and then Callie helped her get rid of her jeans, boots, underwear.

Arizona backed Callie up against the wall, the brick rough against her bare skin, her kiss almost savage as she claimed Callie's mouth with a ferocity that shocked her.

The last time they had been together had been completely different from this. It had been tender, and it had made Callie's heart feel like it was being ripped open. Because the last time they had been together had been the day before her wedding, and she had been convinced it would be the last time she would ever touch Arizona.

Arizona had asked her not to marry Mark.

And Callie had walked away.

She hadn't gone through with the wedding, but by then, the damage had been done.

Callie pushed that thought out of her mind. Pushed everything away and embraced the sensations. Arizona's hands on her body, the thundering need between her thighs.

"Now," Callie whispered against Arizona's lips.

Later she would explore Arizona's whole body and allow her to explore hers. Later, she would do all those wonderful, delicious things to Arizona that Callie had become addicted to during those months they were together. Things that had always seemed distasteful and unappealing before her. Things that had seemed nothing but necessary the moment Callie had first seen Arizona naked.

Arizona looked one last time into Callie's eyes and then surged inside her with three fingers at a time, taking her hard against the wall. Callie clung to her, her fingernails digging into Arizona's shoulders. Arizona reached down, grabbing hold of Callie's thigh and lifting her, encouraging Callie to wrap her legs around her waist as she continued to thrust into her.

Arixona's dark Azures met Callie'S and she could hardly breathe. This woman. This rough, untamed woman was coming apart in her arms. Was losing control over her. Arizona was like a beast Callie could never hope to understand, something entirely foreign to her. Different from every man, every other person she had ever known.

And for some reason, Callie affected Arizona.

Possibly for the same reasons Arizona undid her.

It was all happening too quickly. Her unraveling. Her race toward her climax. She wanted this to go on forever, and at the same time, she needed completion.

But when it was over, they would have to deal with reality. When it was over, they would be left with all the broken pieces they hadn't managed to put back together in the past four months. Right now, with Arizona inside her, there were no broken pieces. It was just Arizona and Callie.

The Callie she was with Arizona... She was even more real than the Callie that existed when she was by herself.

But all too soon, it was over. Pleasure blooming in her stomach, her entire body convulsing as fireworks went off behind her eyelids, and Callie was left shivering, shaking with the aftermath of her release.

Arizona stiffened against her, a short curse on her lips as she found her own release against womanhood.

They slowly came back to themselves, reality creeping in, along with dread. And when Arizona's eyes met hers, the raw anger in them took Callie's breath away.

"Why?" Arizona asked, her voice rough, her gaze intense. "Why did you let it get to the wedding day?"


	6. Chapter 6

She should let this go, Arizona thought. It didn't matter. She had gotten Callie naked one more time. That was a victory, wasn't it? A step in the right direction toward getting Callie out of her head, out of her fantasies, once and for all.

It didn't matter what had happened three months ago. It didn't matter that Arizona had told Callie not to marry Mark. That she had asked Callie to stay with her and Callie had told her she had to marry someone else.

And after that…after that, Arizona had burned her pride to the ground once she heard the wedding hadn't happened. She had gone to see Callie. And Callie had told Arizona she had to make it right with Mark Sloan. She was going to fix things and marry him. Her temporary insanity could not be the final say on what became of her life.

Callie shuddered, then moved away from Arizona. "You don't understand… You haven't understood this whole time."

"You're right. I don't understand. I did exactly what you needed me to do. I asked you not to marry him."

"And I didn't."

"And yet you still told me we had to be over."

Callie let out a short, feral growl. "Did it ever occur to you, Arizona, that this entire thing isn't about you? That maybe who I marry or don't marry doesn't have anything to do with you?"

No. It had not occurred to her. Because from where Arizona was standing, whether or not Callie was with a man, and which man she was with, was her business entirely.

"I was the woman in your bed Calliope. Not your fiancé. I was the woman who made you come. The woman who made you scream. Don't tell me your choices had nothing to do with me."

"I had to deal with my stuff,"Callie said. "My… I blew out my life, Arizona. And I did it for you. Except, I did it for me, too. I needed Sloan to break it off."

"Right. Because you don't want to take responsibility for anything in your own damn life."

"What incentive did you give me? Sex? It's not enough. You're angry at me, but all you asked was for me to stay with you. To keep sleeping with you. You didn't want me to marry Mark Sloan because you didn't want to stop getting laid."

"And yet you blew your life up anyway." Arizona growled

"I did. And then Mark married Lexie Grey. He's happy. He loves her. And that…" Callie swallowed hard, her brown eyes glittering. "I talked to him. After we broke up. I went to apologize. For hurting him. He said I didn't hurt him. At all. You know why? Because he didn't love me. Because not a single person in my life actually loves me. It was… Having that confirmed was actually really good for me."

"What about your father?"

"I owe my father. For my whole life. He would be the first to tell you. You know, he and my mother couldn't have kids. And it's not like that was a secret. Not really. Because…if he had kept it a secret, how could he hold it over my head? He chose me, Arizona. He chose me, and I had to be exactly what he wanted me to be. And I tried. I tried so hard. For twenty-nine years I tried. I wanted to marry Mark because it was the right thing to do. Because he was perfect. Perfect for the kind of woman my father wanted me to be, for the kind of life my father wanted me to have. Because Mark had the connections my dad wanted me to make. And I…I couldn't disappoint him."

A tear slid down Callie's cheek and she wiped it away. "But…I couldn't marry Mark. I couldn't. You came into my life and turned it upside down completely. I hated it. And I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop touching you. Wanting you. Every time I drove by your house… And let's face it, I was on that side of town because I wanted to drive by your house. Every time, I had to stop. I had to have you."

Arizona reached out, grabbed hold of Callie's chin between her thumb and forefinger. "But I wasn't enough? Is that it?"

"No. You didn't offer me enough. You wanted me to stay with you. But you didn't offer me anything but sex."

"Did you want more?"

Callie swallowed hard, looking away from Arizona. "Yes."

"Then fucking ask for it, Calliope. You can't live your entire life letting others make those decisions for you. You can't wait for someone else to say the thing you secretly want to hear. You were going to marry some other man because he wouldn't break up with you. That is sad, and it's straight up cowardice."

"Fine," Callie exploded rage. "I want you to love me, Arizona. Because nobody ever has. Because I need it. And because I love you."

Hands fell to her side, she felt like her heart was going to explode. Which was strange. Because in all of his associations with women, that was the organ that had remained most unaffected. Of course, with Callie, that had never been the case. Even though, honestly, she should have been impervious. Because Arizona knew about women like her. Women who were too good to stay low class women like Arizona Robbins. Women like her, who were just good enough to make a woman come, but not good enough to make a life with.

That was how Arizona's mother had been with her father. She had left him behind, along with all her children and that hovel they called a house. She had never looked back. So Arizona had figured she would never go looking for a woman like that.

Of course, she hadn't counted on meeting the mayor's daughter. And she had counted even less on her tearing her up inside, when no one else ever had.

Here Arizona had been shouting, getting in her face, demanding that Callie...What? She had wanted sex; Arizona didn't want Callie to pretend she loved her.

She had already dealt with Callie walking off to go marry somebody else. She couldn't…she couldn't hope for more and get rejected again. Arizona knew she couldn't stand it if ten years down the road Callie left, sick of living with a logger, sick of living on Arizona's meagre salary, after they'd had kids, after she finally believed it was going to be permanent…

So Arizona was going to do the leaving now.

"You don't love me."

"I do," Callie said.

"No. You think you love me because what happened between us was crazy, and wild, and nothing like anything you'd ever experienced before. But that's not love. That's chemistry. And you and I have it. In spades. It's not common. I've had a lot more sex than you, Callie, and believe me, what we have is good. I mean once-in-a-lifetime good. But that doesn't make it love. At least not on my end."

Arizona held those words close, used them like a weapon, used them like a shield. And when the tears started to fall down Callie's cheeks, she turned away. Because she couldn't watch her break.

But Arizona had to leave. She had to break her, so Callie couldn't break her.

And when she walked out the door Arizona refused to look back.

"Don't leave," Callie said.

This time it was her. Demanding something of Arizona. Asking something. Not waiting for Arizona to be the one to make the move. And if Arizona herself weren't coming apart inside she might have been proud of her.

But she didn't respond. And she didn't stop walking.

* * *

Callie was angrier than she could ever remember being in her life. She had done it. She had put herself out there. She had taken a stand for what she wanted. And Arizona had walked away.

She wondered if this was Arizona's version of revenge. For her leaving her that morning when he had been the one to ask her to stay.

She closed her eyes. She thought back to the day before her wedding. When she had woken up in Arizona's bed. It had been the first time Callie had ever spent a full night with Arizona. She had woken up in Arizona's arms, and gazed up at her, and been hit with the strangest, most intense panic she had ever experienced in her life.

Because she was looking up into the eyes of her alternate future. Life in this small, cozy house, on this unassuming piece of property. Life with a woman who was wholly unsuited to the existence her father had laid out for her. To the expectations her father had for her, that he claimed Callie had a responsibility to meet.

And Callie had...wanted it. That had been the scariest thing. Suddenly, in that moment, she'd wanted to burn it all down. To walk away. To escape into a life with Arizona in it. A future with her. But then, on the heels of that desire, came fear. And that morning, Callie had let fear win.

But today she hadn't. And there had been absolutely no reward for her at all.

Callie wiped the tears off her cheeks and grabbed her coat and purse, walking down the stairs of her apartment two at a time, making her way to her car.

She needed to do something. Part of her wanted to go after Arizona. She intended to head out to Arizona's ranch house.

But instead Callie found herself driving in the opposite direction. Driving out toward the gated community built just south of town, right around the lake. The place where her parents lived.

The house she hadn't been to since leaving after the election.

Callie pulled in, hands shaking as she put the car in Park and headed to the front door. She stood in front of the imposing oak slab for a moment, feeling perilously small. And feeling as if the flowered wreath with its pale green ribbon was judging her with its perfection.

Whatever. It was a wreath. And she was a woman. She was not going to remain perfectly tied, unruffled, or even suited to the season if she didn't feel like it. She was done with that.

For God's sake. She had almost married a man she didn't love to please her father.

She had been content to leave herself unchallenged. To leave herself exactly the way she had schooled herself to be.

Controlled. Well behaved.

Well, Callie had now tasted what it was like to live differently. And even though it hurt—which she had always suspected it would—she couldn't go back. Not now.

So she knocked on the imposing, perfect door.

It took a moment, but one of the family housekeepers answered and led Callie into the antechamber, promising that her father would be with her shortly.

It didn't really surprise Callie to find her father home in the middle of the day. Carlos Torres was well past retirement age. Now that he was no longer mayor, he didn't have much of anything on his plate. Except for golf, she supposed. He probably still golfed with her former future father-in-law. That was, if Nathan Sloan had recovered from the stroke he'd had a few months back.

She heard heavy footsteps on the staircase and turned. Her heart tripped over itself nervously, which was rough, considering it was incredibly bruised from what had just happened with Arizona.

"Hi, Dad," Callie said.

"What are you doing here, Calliope?" her father asked.

"I came to talk to you."

"Have you figured out some way to fix the debacle of the past few months?"

"No. I don't think it can be fixed. More to the point, I don't think I want to fix it. I mean, Mark Sloan is married to somebody else, and very happily. The election already happened. You lost. At this point, even if I could fix it…I need to live my own life. And I understand you feel I should be grateful to you for taking me in. I do appreciate everything you have done for me. I know that being part of your family extended a great amount of privilege to me. But…Dad, I can't owe you for the rest of my life. I love you. But at some point that has to be enough.

"Because I can't keep giving myself. I didn't love Sloan. And I was going to marry him. For you, Dad. And I…I can't. So if all of this makes me a bad daughter, a bad person, well, I never liked myself that much when I was good. I'm not sure if I like myself very much now, either, but at least I'm making my own mistakes and not someone else's."

Her father just stood there, stone-faced, and she turned to walk away. She didn't know what she had expected. The old man didn't know how to bend.

"Wait."

Callie turned and he closed the space between them, pulling her into a hug. It was stiff, and it was tentative, but it was very definitely a hug.

"Don't lose that," he said, his voice rough. "This revelation you've had. Don't lose it." He took a step back from her, his hands falling to his sides. "Somewhere along the way I lost who I wanted to be. I got caught up in what I thought I had to be, and you were swept up along with me. I'm sorry for that. It's funny how things came back into perspective when there was no hope of having all those things I thought I needed to be happy. Now I would settle for having a relationship with you. And I think that's not settling at all."

Callie stayed for a while longer and talked to her dad. It still wasn't the easiest of conversations, because talking to him had never been simple. But at least some of those fractured pieces inside her were starting to come together. She had taken a chance. She had put herself out there. It had failed with Arizona. Because she wasn't ready.

Shockingly, Callie had succeeded with her father.

As she got back into her car and drove toward town she looked up at the mountains, at the sun lining the dark green trees in gold as it sank low in the sky. She turned on the radio and let Dierks Bentley's voice fill up the car. As another tear fell down her face, she did her best to smile.

Because Callie Torres might be one of the most hated and reviled women in the town. And she might not have the woman she loved.

But for the first time in her life, she actually liked herself.


End file.
